Posted 19 October 2023
Netflix and Chill? More like Netflix and even bigger bills
Netflix raises prices AGAIN, even though a crackdown on password sharing.
Netflix is raising prices for some of its subscription plans, despite the success of its recent crackdown on password sharing.
The streaming giant said monthly charges for its UK basic service would rise by £1 to £7.99 and the advert-free option will increase by £2 to £17.99.
Ad-supported and standard subscriptions remain at their current levels.
It reflects the firm's growing confidence, after adding 8.8 million subscribers from July to September.
It was the most in more than two years. For viewers in the US, the premium ad-free plan will cost $3 more per month at $22.99 (£19.00). In France, subscribers will pay an extra €2 euros at €19.99 (£17.40).
Netflix has been facing doubts about whether it can continue to draw in new members, as competition rises, prices climb and a Hollywood strike delays new releases. In the first half of last year, it lost about one million subscribers, sending alarm bells ringing.
Much of the subscriber growth in the most recent quarter was driven by its move to start charging an extra fee - which amounts to a little less than half the £10.99 cost of its "standard" advert-free plan - to have more than one household on the same account.
The launch of a cheaper plan, with adverts, accounted for about 30% of sign-ups in countries where it was available, Netflix said.
"Management's working hard to squeeze every last drop of cash possible from the available subscriber base," said Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
"As that cup begins to run dry, it will be a lot more important to understand exactly how successful the next phase of growth can be."
Netflix said it believed it had the right mix of original hits and licensed fan favourites in its library to keep audiences coming, spotlighting Suits, the legal drama now known for starring Meghan Markle.
First released in 2011 on an American network, the series spent several weeks among the top 10 of Netflix's most-watched English television shows over the summer, racking up more than a billion viewing hours globally.
Netflix, which has been emphasising its own productions in recent years, said in its quarterly update to investors that licensing had always been important and it saw potential opportunities to license more hits "as the competitive environment evolves".
Analysts said licensed material was likely to prove increasingly important, as audiences feel the hit of the Hollywood strikes that have shut down new productions for several months.
Writers recently reached a deal, but the actors guild and the major studios, including Netflix, are still fighting over issues of compensation and artificial intelligence.
Source
Previous Netflix Discussions
Netflix and Chill? More like Netflix and bigger bills - Netflix begins password sharing crackdown and it comes at a cost - May 2023
What’s New & Coming Soon To Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, NOW & Paramount+ Streaming Services?
Netflix is raising prices for some of its subscription plans, despite the success of its recent crackdown on password sharing.
The streaming giant said monthly charges for its UK basic service would rise by £1 to £7.99 and the advert-free option will increase by £2 to £17.99.
Ad-supported and standard subscriptions remain at their current levels.
It reflects the firm's growing confidence, after adding 8.8 million subscribers from July to September.
It was the most in more than two years. For viewers in the US, the premium ad-free plan will cost $3 more per month at $22.99 (£19.00). In France, subscribers will pay an extra €2 euros at €19.99 (£17.40).
Netflix has been facing doubts about whether it can continue to draw in new members, as competition rises, prices climb and a Hollywood strike delays new releases. In the first half of last year, it lost about one million subscribers, sending alarm bells ringing.
Much of the subscriber growth in the most recent quarter was driven by its move to start charging an extra fee - which amounts to a little less than half the £10.99 cost of its "standard" advert-free plan - to have more than one household on the same account.
The launch of a cheaper plan, with adverts, accounted for about 30% of sign-ups in countries where it was available, Netflix said.
"Management's working hard to squeeze every last drop of cash possible from the available subscriber base," said Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
"As that cup begins to run dry, it will be a lot more important to understand exactly how successful the next phase of growth can be."
Netflix said it believed it had the right mix of original hits and licensed fan favourites in its library to keep audiences coming, spotlighting Suits, the legal drama now known for starring Meghan Markle.
First released in 2011 on an American network, the series spent several weeks among the top 10 of Netflix's most-watched English television shows over the summer, racking up more than a billion viewing hours globally.
Netflix, which has been emphasising its own productions in recent years, said in its quarterly update to investors that licensing had always been important and it saw potential opportunities to license more hits "as the competitive environment evolves".
Analysts said licensed material was likely to prove increasingly important, as audiences feel the hit of the Hollywood strikes that have shut down new productions for several months.
Writers recently reached a deal, but the actors guild and the major studios, including Netflix, are still fighting over issues of compensation and artificial intelligence.
Source
Previous Netflix Discussions
Netflix and Chill? More like Netflix and bigger bills - Netflix begins password sharing crackdown and it comes at a cost - May 2023
What’s New & Coming Soon To Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, NOW & Paramount+ Streaming Services?
Community Updates
541 Comments
sorted byThanks.
Is that a mistake and the advert supported plan is going to be £7.99? There's no £6.99 plan
But...there's so much more content now, and here's the kicker...you don't have to subscribe to everything at once. People do, especially in Britain because we're indulgent and like to spoil ourselves, and then moan about the cost of things. But if people just subscribed to one provider at a time, for a month or so each time, they could watch literally everything available (excluding live stuff like sports obviously) for a single, solitary subscription cost.
My tip is to always subscribe to Disney around Christmas...it just belongs in that season.
How far the mighty have fallen. Remember how streaming services were meant to be the solution to the overpriced set-top box TV problem?
Think I'd rather go back to just Sky robbing you blind than every single streaming service doing it.
Worth looking into especially as they'll buy you out of your contact. £280 in our case.
Must be an old picture, KAT shut down, for the second time some years ago.
Netflix: "We've added 9 million more users in 3 months".
I'm thinking we aren't the target market...
Edit - NB the debt on their balance sheet is close to $15bn. Just wait for the house of cards to collapse when the lenders realise Netflix have hit a wall. (edited)
Anyway considering it's "Basic With Ads", I was surprised that I got absolutely no adverts before, during or after the film. I'm not using any ad blockers etc. Not complaining about that, of course!
I do wish I had saved my money as I found the new Chicken Run film quite boring. Oh well, it's just £4.99 and I've cancelled my auto renewal (edited)
Probably too much cost for admin when people complain about being on holiday and can't watch.
im sure there has to be a way of casting from your phone or tablet
My daughter lost access as she's away from home. So I dropped a tier, and added her so pay 1p (£0.01) less than I was. Personally I'd drop Netflix, and get Paramount+ but there are 2 others in the house who watch it a lot.
There is hardly any
Non on new releases and generally only 15 or 30 seconds after half an hour viewing (edited)
... so why is 4K HDR content being sold as a luxury "Premium" package at a whopping £17.99?!
4K HDR is standard now. This is blatant profiteering, especially considering rival platforms offer 4K HDR content as standard.
Even when I had a Netflix Premium sub, a lot of new content wasn't even 4K or Dolby Vision, never mind older content. Netflix are misselling their Premium package, as well as overcharging for it.
Disney plus are as of November doing different price points for their packages now too.
£4.99 for HD, no offline downloads on mobile devices and Adverts included.
£7.99 will now get you only HD and offline downloads.
£10.99 will get you 4K UHD.
(Until it stabilises and they can themselves up their pricing on it all like Netflix are doing.)
Amazon Prime.. as of 2024 will also include adverts, unless you decide to bump up to a "new" advert free experience at a higher price point. (Just to get the same experience as you currently get.)
Now TV.. still aren't aware that 4k UHD are a thing, and still won't even give 1080p viewing on tablets etc.
Paramount UK also still hasn't given us 4k either. (edited)
UK TV Licence / BBC almost £13.50/month
Netflix £10.99/month
Amazon £8.99/month
Disney £7.99/month
Apple TV £6.99/month
Pararmount £6.99/month
etc
About time the market consolidated. Also, the UK TV Licence fee should be scrapped (edited)
See pretty much every formerly public UK service since privatisation as well.